SO THE BEACH HOUSE WE RENTED came with this cool deck chair, which everybody loved. I liked it so much that I wrote down the name, searched it on the Web, and ordered one from Amazon. It reclines kind of like one of those zero-gravity recliner chairs, and even though it folds up neatly for storage, it’s not rickety like most folding deck chairs. Downside — it’s not especially cheap. But given my unsatisfactory experiences with its predecessors, I’m happy.

Perhaps it will encourage me to spend more time on the deck drinking beer, and less time at the computer . . . .